For the ranking part, points were allocated on the basis of 32 for the best achieving of the 32 qualifiers for 1998 FIFA World Cup in each of the three fields considered, down to one for the lowest ranking.

For the World Cup performance part, points were allocated as follows:

Teams qualified for the knockout stages were ranked by their overall performance and received between 32 points (World Cup winner) and 17 points (the losing quarter finalist with the worst overall performance).

Teams eliminated in the group stage were ranked by their performance. The top half received 9 points, the rest 8 points.

The seedings table uses these points obtained from the 1986 FIFA World Cup, 1990 FIFA World Cup and the 1994 FIFA World Cup averaged in a 1:2:3 ratio respectively, added to the average amount of points derived from the World Rankings at three given dates (at ratio 1:1:1), December 1995, December 1996, and November 1997 at a 3:2 ratio.[2] All totals are rounded.